A multiway valve fitted with such a sealing device is described in the U.S. Pat. No. 3,565,115. The multiway valve has housing, which has a substantially cylindrical recess, into which the valve ducts open laterally. The sealing device is arranged in the recess of the housing, such sealing device for its part receiving a piston-like valve spool. Between the sealing device and the valve housing annular sealing elements take effect in order to prevent undersired transfer of fluid between the valve ducts in the housing recess. Adjacent to the inner periphery of the sealing device sealing corresponding sealing elements are also located, which sealingly cooperate with the valve spool, which itself is without any seal. Owing to the change in the axial position of the valve spool it is possible in a conventional way to permit or interrupt a fluid power connection between the individual valve ducts.
The known sealing device consists of a multiplicity of components so that both the production and also the assembly within the housing recess is very complex. It is necessary for a large number of cage-like spacer elements to be placed in a row one behind the other to constitute a sleeve-like holding structure with groove-like holding recesses to receive individual sealing rings. The multipart design by and large leads to an assembly of the sealing rings without damage. In order to securely anchor the sealing rings cooperating with the valve spool the same have to be provided with a special anchoring section, for which reason the associated retaining recesses have a form of cross section which is not simple to produce. All in all, the axially aligned arrangement of the inner sealing elements in the valve housing leads to considerable problems.